1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to household buckets and pails that are designed to prevent a small child from falling into the bucket or accessing the liquids contained within the bucket. More particularly, the present invention relates to buckets with lids, wherein the lid permits a mop to be retained within the bucket while still preventing a child from accessing the contents of the bucket.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
Each year many children die as a result of falling into a simple mop bucket. A bucket filled with water is a tempting sight for a small child. However, if that child were to lean forward and fall into the bucket, the child could drown in only a few inches of water at the bottom of the bucket. Many other injuries are also associated with common mop buckets. Mop buckets often contain hot water that can burn the sensitive skin of a small child. Similarly, mop water often contains ammonia, detergents, bleach, phosphates and similar compounds that can cause severe injury if ingested by a child or splashed into the eyes of a child.
Over the years there have been many different containers that have been provided with some type of child protection cap. Childproof caps are commonly placed on most bottles of medicine, detergents, and other dangerous compounds. However, most of these childproof caps have compressible sides or alignment tabs that depend upon the superior strength and/or intelligence of an adult to open. Such child safety caps are most commonly used to cover small openings, such as bottle necks, wherein the safety cap can be easily manipulated and removed with one hand. Such child proofing technologies are not practical for large containers such as buckets, where the diameter of the opening may be over one foot. Due to the size of a bucket, lids that must be physically aligned, compressed or otherwise physically manipulated would require a considerable amount of physical effort, thereby making such applications very impractical.
There are many products sold in buckets, pails and small drums that have safety lids. However, many such containers have lids that require tools to be removed and reapplied. For example, a bucket of paint has a lid that requires a screw driver to be removed. Although such a lid is obviously childproof, it is entirely inappropriate for a mop bucket that must be opened and closed every few minutes. The prior art is also replete with buckets that have safety seals thereon. See for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,132 to Galer, entitled CHILD-PROOF LID AND PAIL ARRANGEMENT. Such buckets are only child safe until the bucket is opened for the first time and the safety seals are removed. Again, such a configuration is not applicable to a common mop bucket where the bucket is constantly being opened and resealed.
Bucket-like containers have been developed with covers that can be easily opened and closed. Such prior art containers are exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 4,288,000 to Luker et al., entitled CHILD-RESISTANT LID FOR A PAIL. However, such containers either have lids that are very difficult to remove or approach the problem of child safety by providing only a small opening for accessing the contents of the bucket. Although providing a small access opening does prevent a small child from falling into the bucket, it does not prevent a child from reaching into the bucket. Furthermore, a small access opening precludes the placement of a mop head into the bucket, thereby making such a child safety feature very impractical for use with mop buckets.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a low cost child safety bucket that can be easily opened and closed by an adult, yet isolates the contents of the bucket from a child.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a child safe bucket that isolates the contents of a mop bucket even when a mop is extending from the bucket.